Cities, districts, neighborhoods, buildings, and businesses are all telling a story to those who visit and everyone who walks by, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, whether they realize it or not.
So…what story is downtown Canby telling? Canby’s Office of Economic Development (aka Canby Business) is hosting a Civic Identity Workshop this week, inviting Canby businesses to help them answer that very question.
The event’s facilitator, Michele Reeves, of Civilis Consultants, says she’ll be asking questions like “Why would someone want to visit your business?” and “What makes a visitor want to connect with what your district has to offer?”
Her workshop covers the do’s and don’ts of brick & mortar marketing, offers case studies in building brands for districts, and as she told us during a recent interview at Gwynn’s Coffeehouse, even teaches business owners the same framework that improv actors use to create compelling stories.
Michele Reeves is an economic strategist with significant private sector experience revitalizing districts. She is the founder and principal of Civilis Consultants, with more than 18 years of experience in downtown districts all over the country and a strong private sector background in commercial real estate.
The workshop takes place this Thursday at the Antonia Ballroom, above the Backstop Bar & Grill in downtown Canby. It’s just one aspect of the project she’s been hired by the city to deliver, which is an overall framework for downtown development as well as a focus on things local business owners can start doing right now to improve their sales, at little to no cost.
For our complete interview with Michele, in which she shares her thoughts about some of the things downtown Canby has that no other town in the state can measure up to, as well as some areas we can improve, stay tuned to a future episode of the Canby Now Podcast.